On Tap: Minnesota State (12-22-2 overall) begins postseason action this weekend with a best-of-three road WCHA play-off series at #3 Minnesota Duluth (22-8-6 overall) this weekend. Face-off at UMD’s AMSOil Arena (6,726) is slated for 7:07 p.m. (CST) for Friday, Saturday and Sunday (if necessary).

MSU WCHA First-Round Play-Off History: MSU’s all-time record in WCHA first-round action is 9-24. The Mavericks, who have been participating in the WCHA postseason since the 1997-98 season, have played in 14 WCHA postseason tournaments and have won two first-round play-off series to advance to the Final Five (1999-2000 and 2002-03). The Mavericks have played UMD in WCHA play-off action once previously - in 2003-04 with UMD claiming a 2-1 best-of-three series victory. See page 13 of the pdf of this release for MSU’s complete WCHA Play-Off history.

About the MSU-UMD Series: The Mavericks went 0-3-1 versus the defending national champions this year and are 13-22-1 all-time versus the Bulldogs.

Most Recently: Minnesota State closed out the 2011-12 regular season with a pair of road conference losses (4-2 and 3-0) at 14th-rated North Dakota last weekend.

About Minnesota Duluth: Currently rated third in both national polls (see polls on page 5 of this release), the Bulldogs enter the series with the Mavericks standing 22-8-6 overall. UMD, which finished second in the WCHA regular-season standings with a 16-7-5 league record, has gone 4-1-2 in its last seven games. UMD lost (2-1) and tied (3-3) St. Cloud State to close out the WCHA regular season last weekend in its most-recent action.

Senior forward and returning All-American Jack Connolly (18-37-55) ranks second in the country in scoring. Senior forward Travis Oleksuk (21-27--48) and sophomore forward J.T. Brown (21-23--44), along with freshman forward Caleb Herbert (13-18--31), round out UMD’s top four scorers.

Senior Kenny Reiter, who has started 33 of UMD’s 36 games, owns 20--76, 2.44 and .909 numbers.

The 13-page release in its entirety, is available right HERE.